Research Interest: Health care access, quality of care, long-term care policies, caregiving, health and well being of older adults, home care workforce, cross-cultural studies of health and aging, global aging. The issues I study lie at the intersection of public health, health services research, sociology, and gerontology. My research aims to improve the health of diverse aging populations and the quality of long-term care systems. I conduct community-based interventions as well as survey research, qualitative research (e.g., focus groups), and quantitative analysis of large national datasets. I conduct research on health and aging, focusing on social, cultural, policy and system factors that shape health and caregiving experience in aging individuals. And I need research assistants who want to be involved in all aspects of research including literature review, data entry, conducting surveys, research methods, etc. I have been the principal investigator of studies funded by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health that examined how state-, community-, and individual-level factors influence the well-being of older adults and their families. I have developed two related lines of research. In the first, I am developing cost-effective, sustainable community-based health promotion programs in partnership with older adults, caregivers, community-based organizations, and multi-disciplinary research teams. In my second line of research, I compare and contrast long-term care policies and key measures of well-being across societies, thereby enhancing our understanding of the policy options available to the United States and other countries.

Minimum time commitment in hours per week: 3

Qualifications of a Student: Requirements: I am looking for a smart, flexible, committed students who want to learn about research in the field of public health.

Brief Summary of what is expected from the student: You would assist with research that is related to public health, sociology, health care policies and systems, and older adults and their caregivers. You would participate in one of the two research projects. In the first, you would join an active research team with other undergraduate and graduate research assistants under my supervision. You'll be expected to participate in various aspects of the work and to attend research meetings every two weeks. The work involves helping to prepare materials for health promotion interventions for older adults and their caregivers, data entry using an on-line data capturing system, verifying data that has been entered, literature searching, filing data, following up with research participants, etc. In the second research project, we are looking for a student who is bilingual in Japanese and English. If you qualify, you will be expected to assist with analysis of large national datasets collected in Japan and the United States. Regardless of which project you participate, we train you for all tasks. This experience will allow you to understand what research in public health is all about, and help you decide whether you might like to pursue it later in your career. If research is for you, then this experience will prepare you for graduate school, but even if you aren't interested in graduate school, you will learn many generalizable skills and meet other researchers who can give you valuable advice.